First Immortal of the Sword

Chapter 2785 – The Secret of the Nine Luminaries

Light Beam Sword Pavilion.

Su Yi sprawled out in a wicker chair, perusing a jade slip of information regarding the Nine Luminaries Forbidden Zone.

The Nine Luminaries Forbidden Zone was the most dangerous place in the Literati Continent. It was a battlefield leftover from the Devastation, and it only reappeared once every thousand years.

When Lu Hongpao suggested that Su Yi visit, she told him that it contained an Edict of Heaven’s Will!

The Nine Edicts of Heaven’s Will each represented the kind of good fortune of the Grand Dao that Heavenly Sovereigns could only dream of. The one in the Nine Luminaries Forbidden Zone was, fittingly, known as the Nine Luminaries Edict.

The Nine Luminaries referred to the nine heavenly bodies—the sun, the moon, its nodes, and the planets. Together, these heavenly bodies represented the first stars born of the primordial chaos.

The jade slip Su Yi was reading contained detailed information about the Nine Luminaries Forbidden Zone. After finishing it, he couldn’t help but sink into thought.

Simply put, the Nine Luminaries Forbidden Zone was indeed an ancient battlefield leftover from the Devastation! The corpses of hundreds of millions of stars were buried there, including vestiges of the Nine Luminaries. These were called the Graves of the First Stars. The other star corpses had “Star Graves” of varying sizes, too. They housed all manner of opportunities and good fortune.

During the Devastation, the stars represented a supreme power of the Grand Dao of Destiny!

The cultivators of that age used the stars to divine destiny and predict both fortune and disaster. In doing so, they gleaned various insights into the Grand Dao. Of them, the Nine Luminaries were a Law of Heaven’s Will that pointed directly to destiny. The Nine Luminaries were kings among stars, the source of celestial bodies!

But when the curtains fell on the Devastation, although the Dao of the Stars was passed on, the Laws of the Nine Luminaries were lost. They’d vanished from the entire Eternal Heavens Domain, save for the Nine Luminaries Forbidden Zone.

One million years had passed since the End of the Devastation and the start of the New Beginning. Once every thousand years, the Nine Luminaries Forbidden Zone opened. Each time, it drew in a swarm of cultivators. But only a few could actually enter, as spots were highly limited.

The reason was simple. Although the Nine Luminaries Forbidden Zone was located in the Literati Province, two Heavenly Sovereign-level and one Heavenly Monarch-level faction controlled access.

The two Heavenly Sovereign-level factions were Limitless Palace and Sevendeaths Court, while the Heavenly Monarch-level faction was the Heart-Tempering Sword House!

Su Yi was quite surprised to learn this. The Heart-Tempering Sword House is a Heavenly Monarch-level faction. It actually seized control of some of the spots from Limitless Palace and Sevendeaths Court?

But Su Yi quickly understood. It turned out that during the early days of the New Beginning, it was the founder of the Heart-Tempering Sword House, Jiang Wuchen, who’d first discovered the Nine Luminaries Forbidden Zone! He was the first to enter, and he used the Star Luminary Stone found in the Star Graves to refine a batch of medallions. Anyone who carried one could enter the Nine Luminaries Forbidden Zone without being rejected or threatened by its Laws.

Unfortunately, at the time, Jiang Wuchen had only recently established his sect. He couldn’t possibly monopolize access to the Nine Luminaries Forbidden Zone.

As word spread, more and more top factions eyed it covetously, making Jiang Wuchen and the Heart-Tempering Sword House the target of countless arrows. In the end, one of the Heavenly Sovereigns mediated an agreement, and the Heart-Tempering Sword House chose to ally with Limitless Palace and Sevendeaths Court. Together, they’d control access to the Nine Luminaries Forbidden Zone.

Thus, whenever the battlefield opened, most of the spots went to those three sects. The rest were divided amongst other factions. The thirteen top factions of the Literati Continent received thirty spots to divide amongst themselves.

After learning these secrets, Su Yi couldn’t help but sigh. So, my second incarnation came close to monopolizing the Nine Luminaries Forbidden Zone!

Su Yi didn’t know why Jiang Wuchen had chosen the Limitless Palace and Sevendeaths Court to ally with, but he knew that it hadn’t been easy for Jiang Wuchen. After all, at the time, Jiang Wuchen was not yet the Greatest of the Unthroned, and his sect was newly established; it was far from capable of contending with Heavenly Sovereign-level factions. Given the circumstances, it was already impressive that Jiang Wuchen had avoided losing access to the Nine Luminaries Forbidden Zone completely.

That aside, the jade slip contained information that piqued Su Yi’s interest.

For instance, ever since the onset of the New Beginning, every time the Nine Luminaries Forbidden Zone appeared, it would attract a crowd. The good fortune available there had largely been excavated, but there were still as-of-yet uncovered secrets and opportunities. All involved the Daos of the Stars.

The Star Daos included a large number of Daos, all connected to the stars. It was much like how an ocean splits into countless rivers and streams.

Most importantly, despite all this time, no one had found the complete Laws of the Nine Luminaries!

According to the jade slip, over the years, only four of the nine source powers that comprised the Laws of the Nine Luminaries had been found. These were the Laws of the Lunar Luminary, the Laws of the Water Luminary, the Laws of the Metal Luminary, and the Laws of the Earth Luminary. The remaining five had yet to be found.

Notably, when someone gleaned insight into one of the Star Daos, it didn’t vanish. That meant that future visitors still had an opportunity. That was true of the nine source powers of the Laws of the Nine Luminaries, too. Rumor had it that only someone who mastered the complete Laws of the Nine Luminaries could refine the power of the area’s Star Daos and take it with them!

The Laws of the Nine Luminaries were like the rulers of the myriad stars. Controlling their nine source energies was like controlling the origin of the stars. All other Star Daos were like streams flowing into the ocean; whoever mastered the complete Laws of the Nine Luminaries could control them, too.

When Su Yi saw this, he finally understood how difficult Lu Hongpao’s request of him really was. There was no doubt about it. The Laws of the Nine Luminaries were the manifestation of the Nine Luminaries Edict, one of the Nine Edicts of Heaven’s Will and a supreme Grand Dao connected to destiny.

One million years had passed since the Nine Luminaries Forbidden Zone’s discovery. Countless talented cultivators had entered, but even now, no one had ever mastered the complete Laws of the Nine Luminaries. Not even Jiang Wuchen or the experts of Heavenly Sovereign-level factions.

It was obvious how difficult this goal would be to achieve!

The Nine Luminaries were connected to the origin of the stars. Mastering them would let you manifest countless stars, divine the workings of fate, and predict fortune and disaster!

You could derive the secrets of creation and the mysteries of the ages and manifest the endless wonders of the transformations of the Grand Dao!

All of these secrets and more were included in the jade slip that Lu Hongpao had given him.

Traced back to its source, the Nine Luminaries Edict originated from the stele in the upper reaches of the River of Destiny.

I’ve already mastered the Divine Hunt Edict, which means I have experience with Edicts of this level. So long as I can find it, I should be able to control it, thought Su Yi.

Back in the Huaihuang Empire, at the foot of the Mountain of Bitter Rains, he’d tried to use the powers of Reincarnation and Profound Ruin to contend with the power of the Divine Hunt Edict and grasp its mysteries.

Unfortunately, it didn’t work.

It wasn’t that Reincarnation and Profound Ruin were inferior to the Divine Hunt Edict, but that Su Yi’s cultivation base was too weak. Still, Su Yi acquired the Divine Hunt Edict in the end. His methods were simple and crude; he just used the Sword of the Nine Hells to suppress it and claim its power by force!

The diagram of the Divine Hunt Edict was still trapped beneath the Sword of the Nine Hells. During his two years cultivating in the Blueleaf Sword Sect, Su Yi had contemplated its mysteries day and night. By now, he’d learned a fair bit, and he’d gained preliminary mastery over the power of the Divine Hunt.

“Little brother, are you perhaps worried about this trip to the Nine Luminaries Forbidden Zone?”

A bony old man walked over from afar. This was no other than the sole surviving Heavenly Monarch of Light Beam Sword Pavilion, Bu Meng.

“Rest assured. I’ll go with you as your Dao Protector!” Bu Meng said with a laugh.

“Light Beam Sword Pavilion needs you,” said Su Yi, shaking his head. “You’d best stay behind.”

He could use his Nine Luminaries Medallion to bring a Dao Protector with him, but only the bearer of the medallion was exempt from the backlash of the forbidden zone’s Laws.

Those without a medallion had to face two major risks.

A moment’s incaution could lead to being annihilated by the area’s Laws, or to being trapped in the Nine Luminaries Forbidden Zone forever!

Numerous such incidents had taken place over the years.

Ordinarily speaking, going to the Nine Luminaries Forbidden Zone as a Dao Protector was considered a suicide mission.

Those who went had no plan to ever return!

Bu Meng was the only Heavenly Monarch-level sword cultivator left in his sect. What would they do if he left for the Nine Luminaries Forbidden Zone?

Thus, Su Yi outright refused his offer.

Bu Meng laughed. “If I die, how about you lead Light Beam Sword Pavilion in my stead? Wouldn’t that be grand?”

Su Yi didn’t know what to say.

But then, Bu Meng reigned in his smile and waved. “No more jokes. I just received a message from Blueleaf Sword Court. I have no idea if ol’ Qi Jingzhen discovered his conscience or if he’s trying to reel you back in, but he actually arranged for Mo Lanhe to serve as your Dao Protector!”

Su Yi was stunned. “He’s really going to such lengths?”

He couldn’t have been any more familiar with Mo Lanhe. Mo Lanhe was the Mountain Lord of Snowy Pine Peak, where Su Yi had cultivated during his time in the Blueleaf Sword Sect. He was the chief elder of the inner sect, a mighty Sword Monarch!

Unfortunately, Su Yi had a rather poor impression of the man. He certainly hadn’t forgotten the way Mo Lanhe had turned him away at the door when he first visited.

Bu Meng sighed. “Who knows? But I heard that Qi Jingzhen hardened his heart and thoroughly cleansed the Blueleaf Sword Sect. Everyone in it is afraid that he’ll come settle the score with them next.”

Su Yi shook his head. “I don’t need a Dao Protector. Please reject their offer on my behalf.”

He had no particular grudge against the Blueleaf Sword Sect, but he didn’t want to be involved with them any further.

Bu Meng scratched his head and grimaced. “You’d best tell them yourself.”

Before his voice had even finished echoing through the air, a figure approached from afar. He was tall and thin, with graying hair and cold, steely features. His robes were as dark as ink, and he carried a snow-white sword on his back. This was none other than Mo Lanhe!

When he arrived, he bent at the waist and clasped his fist in greeting. “Fellow Daoist, please grant me this opportunity to make amends!”

His gaze was calm, and his voice determined, but there was no sign of any emotion on his face.

Bu Meng said coldly, “Little Brother, Qi Jingzhen said that if you refused, he’d make Mo Lanhe leave his head here in the Light Beam Sword Pavilion. And we’re a small sect; we have no room for a head as swollen as that.”